Player losses give us Heart

MELBOURNE Heart says fans should not despair as the club's crop of young stars continue to be plucked by bigger clubs on the world stage.

Eli Babalj (Red Star Belgrade) and Brendan Hamill (Seongnam) have recently signed deals to play elsewhere, while Curtis Good is still on the radar of English Premier League club Newcastle and Aziz Behich has also been linked to a European move.

While replacements have to be found for those who leave, Heart's football operations manager John Didulica said the departures should be viewed as positive for the club.

"We pride ourselves on player preparation, the way we train our boys," Didulica said.

"And it's working, because not only are these guys doing well in the A-League - we made the finals comfortably last year - we're taking guys from nowhere to, within two years, having the best clubs in Europe and Asia wanting them.

"So I think we're doing a lot right in that regard. The price you pay, if you can call it a price, is that you lose them to larger clubs globally, but we back ourselves in to find the next batch and do the same thing again."